Co-written, produced, and directed by horror veteran Eli Roth, Ice Cream Man is set in a seemingly idyllic suburban town. It descends into madness when a mysterious ice cream van arrives. When the kids taste the goodies on sale they turn into homicidal maniacs.
I am not generally a big fan of Roth’s work, though I thought that his last film, Thanksgiving was very enjoyable. His follow up also has its moments. The depiction of an all American small town is nicely detailed, with most of the kids pretty monstrous before they consume the ice cream. There are also some pleasingly gory kills.
There are, though, some problems with the script. At one point, Benjamin Byron Davis turns up as a priest to deliver bafflingly complicated exposition, only for a large part of it to be irrelevant. The acting is variable at best, with Roth himself one of the worst culprits. It is also quite cheap looking, and I cannot condone the use of AI.
Charlie Zeltzer, Sarah Abbott and Dylan Hawco are decent though, and I liked the downbeat ending.
Rating: 6 out of 10